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Archives for June 23, 2025

Celtics Trade Holiday; Acquire Simons

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Portland Trail Blazers are reacquiring two-time All-Star guard Jrue Holiday from the Boston Celtics, sending guard Anfernee Simons and two future second-round draft picks to Boston in return, according to multiple reports on Monday night.

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Holiday, 35, who will earn $32.4 million next season, is owed a total of approximately $72 million in 2026-27 and 2027-28, after which his four-year, $134.4 million contract that he signed with the Celtics in April 2024 expires.

Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Simons joins the Celtics on an expiring contract. Per ESPN, the deal saves Boston $40 million in luxury tax payments next season.

In 2023, Portland landed Holiday in a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for Damian Lillard, then sent the 16-year veteran to Boston and acquired a pair of first-round picks. Holiday never played a game for the Blazers.

Per the report, the Celtics are actively involved in trade talks involving multiple players on their roster following Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear in the second round of the playoffs.

In his first season with the Celtics, Holiday played an instrumental role in the team’s run to the NBA title, shooting a career-high 42.9 percent from 3-point range in 2023-24 and earning All-Defensive team honors.

Holiday was a first-round pick (No. 17 overall) of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2009. He has career averages of 15.8 points, 6.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals with the 76ers (2009-13), New Orleans Pelicans (2013-20), Bucks (2020-23) and Celtics in 1,037 games (956 starts). He won his first NBA title with Milwaukee in 2021 and is a six-time All-Defensive selection.

Simons, 26, was also a first-round selection, picked at No. 24 by the Blazers in 2018. In seven seasons with Portland he posted 15.0 points, 3.3 assists and 2.5 rebounds over 389 games (213 starts). He should fit in with the Celtics’ offensive approach, as he has averaged nearly nine 3-point attempts per game the last three seasons and is a career 38.1 percent shooter from distance.

–Field Level Media

Thunder Rode to Championship

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points, Jalen Williams added 20, and the OKC Thunder became NBA champions by wearing down the Indiana Pacers with a withering defense to pull off a 103-91 win on Sunday night in Game 7.

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The NBA championship is the franchise’s first since moving to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season and first since winning the 1979 title as the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Thunder forced 23 Pacers turnovers while committing just eight and outscored Indiana 32-10 off turnovers.

The Pacers, who remain without an NBA title, lost star point guard Tyrese Haliburton to a right leg injury in the first quarter, when he scored nine points.

After turning the ball over eight times in a Game 6 blowout loss on the road in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, point guard Gilgeous-Alexander was much better on Sunday night.

The NBA Most Valuable Player this season, Gilgeous-Alexander finished just 8 of 27 from the floor and 2 of 12 from beyond the arc but had 12 assists and just one turnover.

Indiana trailed by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter but cut the deficit to 12 with less than five minutes left and 10 with just more than two minutes remaining.

But the Pacers couldn’t get any closer.

Chet Holmgren added 18 points for Oklahoma City.

The Thunder took over in the third quarter, using the same suffocating defense that helped them earn the NBA’s best record at 68-14 and pushed them through their playoff run as the favorite to win the crown.

Oklahoma City scored 18 points off eight Indiana turnovers as it outscored the Pacers 34-20 in the third.

The Thunder, whose offense looked out of sort through much of the first half after struggling in a Game 6 loss, also thrived at the other end of the floor.

Oklahoma City didn’t commit a turnover in the third, and Williams scored nine points in the quarter, including hitting a critical 3-pointer during the stretch that put the Thunder ahead for good.

Gilgeous-Alexander spun in the lane, drawing an “oooh” from the home crowd.

But instead of flipping up a shot, as he has done countless times during his MVP season, Gilgeous-Alexander instead flipped to Williams in the corner.

Oklahoma City’s other All-Star quickly fired up a 3-pointer, which bounced high off the rim before draining through, sending the crowd into a frenzy as the Thunder’s lead stretched to nine after back-to-back-to-back Thunder 3-pointers broke a tie.

It could’ve been worse for the Pacers if not for point guard T.J. McConnell, who scored 12 points in the third, hitting six of Indiana’s eight field goals in the frame.

Indiana’s Haliburton started off hot, hitting three 3-pointers in a little more than five minutes to start the game.

But two minutes later, as the Pacers’ point guard was starting to drive outside of the top of the arc, he came crashing to the court and screamed.

The ball popped out to Alex Caruso, who quickly fired to Gilgeous-Alexander, who found Williams streaking up court for a dunk as Haliburton remained crumpled on the ground with a non-contact injury.

After the play, Haliburton was helped off the court. The Indiana star, who suffered a right calf strain in Game 5 but had been playing through it, couldn’t put weight on his right leg as he was helped to the locker room.

Haliburton did not return with what the Pacers classified as a “right lower leg injury.”

On the ABC broadcast, it was reported Haliburton had suffered a torn Achilles.

Even without Haliburton, though, the Pacers kept the game tight, leading by one at halftime and tying the game early in the third before the Thunder began their onslaught.

Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and McConnell added 16 each.

The Thunder became the first team to score 100 or more points in an NBA Finals Game 7 since 1988, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons 108-105.

–Field Level Media

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-MVP

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OKLAHOMA CITY – (Wire Service Report) – Named NBA Finals MVP following Oklahoma City’s 103-91 Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has earned the crown jewel of one of the NBA’s most decorated seasons at only 26 years old.

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Gilgeous-Alexander won the regular-season MVP and Finals MVP this season, becoming the ninth player in league history to accomplish that feat and the first since LeBron James in 2012-13 with the Miami Heat.

“It’s hard to believe that I’m part of that group. It’s hard to even fathom that I’m that type of basketball player sometimes,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 7. ” … I’m just glad and happy that my dreams have been able to come true.”

The 6-foot-6 guard was the clear favorite to win the award if the Thunder captured the championship, averaging 30.3 points, 5.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game in the seven-game series.

Gilgeous-Alexander had a tough shooting night (8 for 27 from the field) to close out the series in Game 7, but as he’s done all season, he produced from the free-throw line. The league leader in drives made 11 of 12 attempts from the stripe and had his best playmaking performance of the Finals, notching a playoff-career-high 12 assists.

“Coming off of Game 6, I obviously had a lot more turnovers than assists. That’s not a recipe for a win, and I wanted to do whatever it took tonight to get a win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Whether that was me playing in space, or it was … some of my teammates open and just trying to make the right basketball play.”

With a record 72 points over his first two career Finals games, Gilgeous-Alexander started hot and never looked back. His 34-point performance in Game 2 to prevent a 2-0 Thunder deficit and 35 in Game 4 to avoid falling down 3-1 kept Oklahoma City step-for-step with a relentless Indiana Pacers team.

The Thunder proved to be equally as tough. They lost consecutive games only twice in the regular season and never lost back-to-back games this postseason.

“We have a team full of competitors, we did what it took this year to be champions, and we deserve this,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We rose to the moment, here we are.”

The Toronto native won regular-season MVP by leading a 68-win Thunder team — the highest regular-season win total since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors — and pacing the league in scoring at 32.7 points per game.

Alexander had among the most efficient volume scoring seasons of any guard in NBA history, posting 51.9/37.5/89.8 shooting splits, and was a solid defensive piece on one of the stingiest defenses in recent league history.

The No. 11 overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2018 draft, Gilgeous-Alexander was traded on draft night to the Los Angeles Clippers. After his rookie season, the Clippers shipped the Kentucky product to Oklahoma City in a package for Paul George, tipping the first domino in what would become one of the league’s most successful rebuilds.

Gilgeous-Alexander was a fringe All-Star caliber player for three seasons, in two of which the Thunder won fewer than 30 games, until he burst into the forefront of the NBA in the 2022-23 season, averaging 31.4 ppg.

Last season, he was the runner-up for MVP while Oklahoma City fell short of a title in a second-round exit.

A year later, Gilgeous-Alexander hoisted the first Larry O’Brien and Finals MVP trophies that Oklahoma City has ever seen.

— Field Level Media